As I have little in the way of hobby progress to report, I thought I would do a quick post about some of my recent (last 2-3 months) YouTube watching of Eastern Front war films!
Film I: Aggression
Part 1
In the aftermath of the victory in France, Hitler decides to attack the Soviet Union and places his hopes on field marshal Fedor von Bock, commander of Army Group Center, for the capture of Moscow. Ilse Stöbe, Rudolf von Scheliha and Richard Sorge inform the Soviet leadership of the danger, but the Soviet intelligence dismisses their warnings. Zhukov is concerned that the army is ill-prepared; Pavlov decries him as a fear-monger. The Red Army officers are convinced that in the event of an invasion, they would immediately counter-attack. On 22 June 1941 Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, overwhelming the Soviets.
Part 2
The Red Army tries to counter the assault with a string of hasty operations, while the Brest Fortress is desperately defended. The Soviets manages to recapture Yelnya but having Lieutenant General L.G. Petrovsky killed in action. Stalin insists on defending Kiev, and his forces suffer immense losses.
Film II: Typhoon
Part 1
The Wehrmacht enacts to attack Moscow which Hitler decides to call Operation Typhoon. Richard Sorge finds out that Japan won't attack the USSR in 1941. The Germans approach the Soviet capital, winning the Battle at Borodino Field and breaching the Mozhaisk line. Stalin decides to remain in Moscow.
Part 2
The enemy is at the outskirts of the city, yet the traditional 7 November parade takes place as always. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (a teenage female partisan) is captured and executed, and Panfilov's men fight to the last. Rokossovsky begs Zhukov to allow retreat but is refused. After all seems lost, the Germans grind to a halt because of the harsh winter. On 6 December, the Soviets launch a successful counter-offensive by using the air force, the cavalry, tanks, and ski troops. The Germans are forced to retreat, causing Hitler to blame his generals.
Film I: The Fire Bulge
After the Soviets are alerted to the imminent German offensive in Kursk, they launch a preemptive artillery strike, delaying the enemy. The battalion of Lieutenant Colonel Lukin – led by officers Tzvetaev, Orlov, and Maximov – participates in the battle, as well as the tank of Lieutenant Vasiliev.
In KZ Sachsenhausen, Yakov Dzhugashvili (Stalins son) refuses Andrei Vlasov's offer to exchange him for Friedrich Paulus. Meanwhile, in Kursk, the Germans advance. Maximov flees but finally turns back and chooses to be shot when captured.
When hearing about the German proposal regarding Yakov, Stalin rejects it, saying he will not trade a Field Marshal for a soldier. The partisans break out of an encirclement. The Soviet counter-offensive is launched in Kursk. Erich von Manstein commits all his forces to a final assault, bringing the Soviets close to defeat. Vatutin urges to send in the strategic reserve, which repels the Germans.
Film II: Breakthrough
After the Allied landing in Sicily, Mussolini is arrested on the King's orders. In Warsaw, the Polish Resistance bombs a German cinema. Mussolini is rescued by Otto Skorzeny and his commandos.
The Red Army reaches the Dnieper. Lukin's regiment crosses it, presumably as the division's vanguard; unbeknownst to them, they are merely a ploy to mislead the enemy. The regiment is cut off without reinforcements and wiped out. Lukin is killed. Tzvetaev leads the survivors back to their lines.
On Stalin's orders, the Soviet High Command plans its offensive on Kiev, stealthily redeploying their forces. The city is liberated. The Allied leaders meet in Tehran.
Film III: Direction of the Main Blow
Part 1
Stalin informs his allies that a Soviet offensive will take place soon after the Normandy landings. The Stavka decides to strike in Belarus. Orlov leads his soldiers in a charge to rescue nurse Zoia, who insisted on evacuating the wounded from a battlefield.
After concluding that the Belarus marshes are passable, Rokossovsky demands that the main effort be directed towards Bobruisk and insists until Stalin approves. Panteleimon Ponomarenko orders the Belarusian partisans to attack all railways. Operation Bagration is launched.
Part 2
The Soviets march on Bobruisk. Afterwards, they liberate Minsk. A group of German officers tries to assassinate Hitler and take power but fails. Churchill is pleased to hear of this, fearing a peace would leave Europe to Stalin.
In Poland, Zawadzki and Berling watch the Bug River as the Polish 1st Army crosses it, saying they are happy to return home.
Film IV: The Battle of Berlin
Stalin orders to hasten the Vistula-Oder offensive in order to relieve the Allies. Karl Wolff is sent to negotiate with the Americans.
Zhukov rejects Stavka's order to take Berlin, fearing an attack on his flank. In Yalta, Stalin notifies Churchill and Roosevelt that he knows of their secret dealings with the enemy. Saying that trust is the most important thing, he tears apart the picture showing Allen Dulles and Wolff. Zhukov's forces cross the Oder and approach Berlin. The Soviets capture a teenage sniper; they send him to his mother. Vasilev's tank crushes into a house. The crew has a pleasant meal with the owner's family. The Soviets and the Poles storm the Tiergarten.
Film V: The Last Assault
In Berlin, Lieutenant Yartsev's infantry and Tzvetaev's battery fight their way in the U-Bahn. When Hitler orders the tunnels flooded, Tzvetaev drowns while rescuing civilians.
Captain Neustroev's company is selected to hoist the Victory Banner atop the Reichstag. A Soviet officer is assigned to Führerbunker as a communication operator for negotiations about German surrender. In the Führerbunker, after marrying Eva Braun, Hitler murders her and commits suicide. At the Reichstag, Dorozhkin is killed in the fighting. The Victory Banner is unfurled on the dome. The Berlin garrison surrenders unconditionally. Outside the Reichstag, Vasiliev, Orlov, Yartsev, and an immense crowd of Red Army soldiers celebrate victory.
Pretty obvious what this one was about!
Cut off Soviet troops continue to operate as quasi partisans behind German lines
USSR, late November 1941. Based on the account by reporter Vasiliy Koroteev that appeared in the Red Army's newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda, shortly after the Battle of Moscow, this is the story of Panifilov's Twenty-Eight, a group of twenty-eight soldiers of the Red Army's 316th Rifle Division, under the command of General Ivan Panfilov, that stopped the advance on Moscow of a column of fifty-four German tanks and hundreds of infantry who guarded tanks' flanks of the 11th Panzer Division for several days. Though armed only with standard issue Mosin-Nagant infantry rifles and DP and PM-M1910 machine guns, all useless against tanks, and with RPG-40 anti-tank grenades and PTRD-41 anti-tank rifles, they fought tirelessly and defiantly, with uncommon bravery and unwavering dedication, to protect Moscow and their Motherland.
Below is the monument that marks the site of the events dramatised in the Panfilov movie:
I think these are mainly pretty self-explanatory too.....
Hot Snow - In December 1942, the soldiers of a Red Army anti-tank gun battery face the onslaught of General von Manstein's armoured divisions trying to relieve the besieged 6th Army in Stalingrad. Eventually only seven of them survive, but the German tank breakthrough is stopped, and in the final scene General Lieutenant Bessonov (Georgiy Zhzhonov) awards each of the survivors with the Order of Red Banner saying: "Thank you for tanks knocked out. This is all I can do...".
The film is an adaptation of Yuri Bondarev's eponymous 1969 novel, which was itself based on Bondarev's own wartime experience as a battery commander in Stalingrad
"Tankers"
The film is based on the real story of the feat of the crew of a Soviet KV-1 tank under the command of Semyon Konovalov, which took part in an unequal battle on 13th July 1942, and destroyed 16 tanks, two armored vehicles and eight other vehicles from enemy forces in the area of the village of Nizhnemityakin [Russia], Tarasovsky District, Rostov Oblast.
T-34 is a 2019 Russian war film written and directed by Aleksey Sidorov. The title references the T-34, a Soviet medium tank used on the Eastern Front during World War II. The film narrates the life of Nikolai Ivushkin, a tank commander who gets captured by the Germans. Three years later, he begins to plan his ultimate escape, alongside his newly recruited tank crew
The film is a bit "Hollywood" but has some really great action and battle sequences
The T34 escaping from a German training area where the crew had been forced to work as opponents for German tank crews in training - however, as POW's, earlier in the film, they had first had to rehabilitate a knocked out T34/85 to use for this purpose and during the operation to repair it, they realized it still had some live ammunition, which they concealed from the Germans until it came time to stage their getaway!
The girl on the right was a Russian who was used by the Germans as an interpreter for the tank crew - she was a prisoner too but had more freedom to leave the camp etc, more of a slave labourer than an actual inmate. In the next scene after the above, the escaping T34 pulled up at the bus stop and collected her in front of the amazed locals!
Another fun scene - the T34 rolled into some small provincial German town, where the only armed men were middle aged policemen - who promptly raised their hands and handed over their weapons - the crew then got some food and large Steins of beer from the townsfolk, before heading off again!
The film ended with a showdown on a bridge between the T34 and a Panther commanded by the main German character, a hot shot SS tank officer - no prizes for guessing the outcome!
All these films are easy to find on YouTube and come with English subtitles. Nice to get a view of the war from a different angle, although the films (particularly the more recent ones like T34 above) are as realistic as Fury or saving Private Ryan!
I am off to a game of Sharpe Practice at Julians tomorrow so should have a battle report for you on Saturday sometime.
